Today's poet

[Old Whippet]

For reasons I don't understand.....I love this!

and I also love that this thread is over 12,000(!) posts old. 12,000 poetry postings !!!!!

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.


Philip Larkin

[sportman80]

sharing a very successful. Thanks to everyone

[Nathaniel Lee]

Two windows on a Soul.

Despair.

The fates have taken me,
Deep black skeletal caress,
Cold against my cheek,
But i don't care the fights been hard,
I'm longing for my peace down in Hades,
Elysium has no place for my tortured soul,
I feel one last cut by the fates gnarled hand,
I am of this earth no more.

Mania.

Light shines through my window,
A billion rays of wondrous joy,
Colours vibrant the sound of nature,
Such love for all cleanses my soul,
I can bring you all salvation,
Share my soul become one with me,
Let us all be eternal,
Just take me by the hand,
I'll take you places you never knew you could go,
Realms of pure ecstasy,
And you will wonder why you didn't join me before,
I have enough love for you all,
Come with me.


Nathaniel Lee.

[freckle]

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.


Philip Larkin

I too enjoyed the sentiment of this (not the mauling of the cute hedgehog!), i.e.that we should be kind to each other...before time runs out!

Over 12,000 posts?.....who would of thought it eh?.....here s one of my old favourites to celebrate....

Love Comes Quietly
Robert Creeley

Love comes quietly,
finally, drops
around me, on me
in the old ways.

What did I know,
thinking myself
able to go
alone all the way.

[freckle]

Two windows on a Soul.

Despair.

The fates have taken me,
Deep black skeletal caress,
Cold against my cheek,
But i don't care the fights been hard,
I'm longing for my peace down in Hades,
Elysium has no place for my tortured soul,
I feel one last cut by the fates gnarled hand,
I am of this earth no more.

Mania.

Light shines through my window,
A billion rays of wondrous joy,
Colours vibrant the sound of nature,
Such love for all cleanses my soul,
I can bring you all salvation,
Share my soul become one with me,
Let us all be eternal,
Just take me by the hand,
I'll take you places you never knew you could go,
Realms of pure ecstasy,
And you will wonder why you didn't join me before,
I have enough love for you all,
Come with me.


Nathaniel Lee.

interesting insight nathaniel...i like the idea of a billion rays of wondrous joy

[freckle]

I love this creeley poem...its like a really insightful stream of consciousness...how do we define ourselves, our lives ? or does it all move so fast we can't really tell?


When I think
Robert Creeley


When I think of where I've come from

or even try to measure as any kind of

distance, those places, all the various

people, and all the ways in which I re-

member them, so that even the skin I

touched or was myself fact of, inside,

could see through like a hole in the wall

or listen to, it must have been, to what

was going on in there, even if I was still

too dumb to know anything-- When I think

of the miles and miles of roads, of meals,

of telephone wires even, or even of water

poured out in endless streams down streaks

of black sky or the dirt roads washed clean,

or myriad, salty tears and suddenly it's spring

again, or it was-- Even when I think again of

all those I treated so poorly, names, places,

their waiting uselessly for me in the rain and

I never came, was never really there at all,

was moving so confusedly, so fast, so driven

like a car along some lonely highway passing,

passing other cars-- When I try to think of

things, of what's happened, of what a life is

and was, my life, when I wonder what it meant,

the sad days passing, the continuing, echoing deaths,

all the painful, belligerent news, and the dog still

waiting to be fed, the closeness of you sleeping, voices,

presences, of children, of our own grown children,

the shining, bright sun, the smell of the air just now,

each physical moment, passing, passing, it's what

it always is or ever was, just then, just there.

[Alf]

Two windows on a Soul.

Despair.

The fates have taken me,
Deep black skeletal caress,
Cold against my cheek,
But i don't care the fights been hard,
I'm longing for my peace down in Hades,
Elysium has no place for my tortured soul,
I feel one last cut by the fates gnarled hand,
I am of this earth no more.

Mania.

Light shines through my window,
A billion rays of wondrous joy,
Colours vibrant the sound of nature,
Such love for all cleanses my soul,
I can bring you all salvation,
Share my soul become one with me,
Let us all be eternal,
Just take me by the hand,
I'll take you places you never knew you could go,
Realms of pure ecstasy,
And you will wonder why you didn't join me before,
I have enough love for you all,
Come with me.


Nathaniel Lee.

A very dramatic contrast with those two poems Nat. The order of the poems gave me a more optimistic outlook though. Was that what you wanted to convey?

[Alf]

I too enjoyed the sentiment of this (not the mauling of the cute hedgehog!), i.e.that we should be kind to each other...before time runs out!

Those were the two lines that attracted me to it mossy/freckle especially from a poet like Larkin who can create a bit of gloom and doom.
I hadn't clocked the 12000 posts though, it doesn't seem that long since it was 10000

[Alf]

I love this creeley poem...its like a really insightful stream of consciousness...how do we define ourselves, our lives ? or does it all move so fast we can't really tell?


When I think
Robert Creeley


When I think of where I've come from

or even try to measure as any kind of

distance, those places, all the various

people, and all the ways in which I re-

member them, so that even the skin I

touched or was myself fact of, inside,

could see through like a hole in the wall

or listen to, it must have been, to what

was going on in there, even if I was still

too dumb to know anything-- When I think

of the miles and miles of roads, of meals,

of telephone wires even, or even of water

poured out in endless streams down streaks

of black sky or the dirt roads washed clean,

or myriad, salty tears and suddenly it's spring

again, or it was-- Even when I think again of

all those I treated so poorly, names, places,

their waiting uselessly for me in the rain and

I never came, was never really there at all,

was moving so confusedly, so fast, so driven

like a car along some lonely highway passing,

passing other cars-- When I try to think of

things, of what's happened, of what a life is

and was, my life, when I wonder what it meant,

the sad days passing, the continuing, echoing deaths,

all the painful, belligerent news, and the dog still

waiting to be fed, the closeness of you sleeping, voices,

presences, of children, of our own grown children,

the shining, bright sun, the smell of the air just now,

each physical moment, passing, passing, it's what

it always is or ever was, just then, just there.

Thats a great choice freckle really enjoyed it !

[Nathaniel Lee]

Yes it was although it is true to say my ailment is cyclical but i couldn't find a way in these particular poems to satisfactorily express that. I do feel that i have captured how my state of mind and behaviour becomes when manic but i don't feel i have captured the selfishness in my despair which is the polar opposite (excuse the pun) of mania where i feel completely free and i want everyone to share it.